Design of an automatic ball collector

• Main Author: Toh, Guan Rui
• Other Authors: Cheng Tee Hiang
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71417
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As technology advances, manual labour work will be desired to be taken over by robots automatically. Light-weighted balls are used in many sports such as tennis, golf and table tennis. Usually multiple balls are used during leisure play or at trainings to ensure players to have smooth continuous games. However, the balls will eventually run out and users will have to pick up the balls that are scattered all over the floors. Picking them up one by one with hands can be a hassle and could cause unnecessary disruptions to training routines. In this project, an Automatic Ball Collector (ABC) will be built. It will be designed to collect ping pong balls automatically during and after a table-tennis training session. ABC is essentially an autonomous robot with a ball collection mechanism, a camera and/or other sensors for tracking and navigation. An Arduino board be used as the controller and the main frame will be built with 20mm by 20mm aluminum profile. It will be using a camera for colour recognition to navigate and will be driven by a couple of DC motors for maneuverability. A full-scale prototype of the system is expected to design and built. As this is a new concept, it will be tested out in a controlled environment for optimal performance.